The invention relates to an armor-piercing inertial projectile having a nose portion which acts as a penetrating body, a main penetrator body, an intermediate portion disposed therebetween which is connected between the nose portion and the main penetrator body. The nose portion has a rear end which extends into the intermediate body. This rear end has a rearwardly facing conical surface, opposite to the firing direction, by means of which the elements forming the intermediate body are pushed outwardly after impact of the projectile on the target.
It has been observed that when such a projectile impacts on an inclined armor plate, the axis of the formed penetration channel approaches during its formation a direction normal to the armor plate surface and, consequently, forms an angle with the direction of flight of the projectile. This can cause bending moments in the steel of which the projectile is made and, in case of projectiles made of sintered heavy metal, can cause fracturing, which considerably detracts from the target effectiveness, in particular on a multiplate target, by the impacting projectile.